STARKVILLE — Thursday night had been an adventure for Paige Cook both at the plate and in the field.
Mississippi State’s best hitter in 2023 had not hit the ball out of the infield in her first three at-bats, and although she did make a diving catch in right field in the second inning, she also lost one line drive in the sun and let another skip under her glove for a triple. So when Cook came to bat in the bottom of the sixth with the Bulldogs, who had trailed Florida by six runs at the start of the inning, down by just one, she was due for a little redemption.
On the second pitch, Cook delivered, with her line drive to center field carrying over the wall for a two-run home run that gave MSU a one-run lead. It proved to be the decisive blow in a wild, back-and-forth series opener as the No. 17 Bulldogs took down the No. 10 Gators, 13-12.
“I was trying to find a good adjustment,” Cook said. “Going into my last at-bat, I just told myself, ‘I’m getting a hit.’ As soon as the ball came off the bat, I was so pumped up.”
The blast capped a seven-run sixth inning for MSU (25-7, 6-4 Southeastern Conference) on a night that featured four lead changes, four half-innings with at least four runs and more than three hours of softball. It was Florida (29-5, 5-2) that struck first, plating a run in each of the first two innings against Aspen Wesley before the Bulldogs’ bats came to life.
Gators freshman ace Keagan Rothrock was in control through two innings, but with one out in the third, freshman Salen Hawkins jump-started the MSU offense with a long home run to left that put the hosts on the board. The top of the order then put together a two-out rally, with Nadia Barbary’s double scoring Sierra Sacco to tie the game.
That brought up Madisyn Kennedy, still in the midst of a torrid month of March that has vaulted her into the national spotlight as one of the best hitters in the country. A strikeout victim her first time up, Kennedy was all over Rothrock’s first pitch, rocketing it over the wall in left-center to put the Bulldogs on top 4-2.
“The biggest thing about (Kennedy) is she’s just relaxed and having fun,” head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “She’s not putting a lot of pressure on herself. Her big goal coming into this season was just to play loose, have fun and really connect with her teammates. She’s done exactly that, and it’s taken all that pressure off of her that she could be feeling right now.”
Wesley, though, was unable to protect the lead, issuing four free passes in the fourth as well as an infield hit before freshman Delainey Everett took over for her in the circle. Everett allowed a two-run double to Reagan Walsh that put Florida back in front, and the Gators added their fifth run of the inning on an obstruction call at home plate.
Kennedy’s two-run double in the fifth trimmed MSU’s deficit to one, but Everett got knocked around in the sixth as Florida put up another five-spot, capped by a pinch-hit two-run homer from Baylee Goddard that gave the visitors a 12-6 lead.
“There were definitely a lot of emotions, but it was the vibe that we’re not going to go away,” Kennedy said. “We’re going to fight until the end and they’re going to get our best.”
Jessie Blaine opened the bottom of the sixth with a double, then freshman catcher Ella Wesolowski singled and took second after catching the Gators’ defense napping, with pinch-runner Kat Wallace scoring on an errant throw. Pinch-hitter Aquana Brownlee’s sacrifice fly brought home another run, and the Bulldogs then tallied four consecutive hits, cutting the deficit to 12-11 on RBI singles from Sacco and Barbary. That set the stage for Cook’s heroics.
Taking no chances, MSU turned to sophomore Josey Marron to close things out in the seventh, and Marron did, working around a two-out walk to shut the door on Florida.
“I don’t know if we quite expected the offensive battle we had in (the first game), but it is two of the top offenses in the conference,” Ricketts said. “Really proud of the fight the girls showed, even when we got down by six there, they never seemed discouraged. They were expecting to go out there and continue to have quality at-bats and make their pitchers work.”
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